Well, John seems to have survived the set-to that came to be known as Dunmore’s War.  Pretty interesting piece of history considered by some to be the first war of the Revolution.  At Point Pleasant, the Indian nations of the Ohio Valley – a confederation of Indian nations of Shawnee, Mingo, Miamis, Ottowas, Delewares, and Wyandots – led by the Shawnee chief Cornstalk, fielded well over 1000 warriors to confront approximately the same number of troops led by Colonel Andrew Lewis.

There are conflicting reports on the actions of Dunmore during the battle of Point Pleasant.  There is an interesting body of writings that either transversly or overtly accuse Dunmore of manipulating Lewis’s Southern Regiment for annihilation by Cornstalk, presumably as a measure to ensure the Indians’ cooperation in gaining territory and land for Dunmore.  There are other documents that avow Dunmore’s action as a brave and necessary maneuver to protect the frontier.

Dunmore was in an action to slice off the southwestern area of Pennsylvania and claim it for Virginia.  He gained control of Ft Pitt, and pushed through an existing border dispute in his favor. He also gained a good deal of land for his own holdings.  The observations in letters and articles run the gamut from reports of Lewis having to restrain his troops from killing Dunmore after the battle, to a syrupy description of Dunmore:

 As the head official of that army and as the presiding officer of that convention, there sat a royal Colonial Governor, Lord, Peer of Great Britain, who had sat for ten years in the House of Lords, and had now walked on foot from the Shenandoah Valley to the banks of the Scioto.

The battle is won, the draft of the treaty of Camp Charlotte secure in Dunmore’s hand, and now John is returning to his Pennsylvania home – battered, scarred, exhausted – to the life of husband, father, and doing whatever work there is to be done with Uncle Valentine.